Encyclopedia

Marwan II

Marwan II (mär'wän) [key], 684–750, last of the Umayyad caliphs. He served as governor of Armenia before his short-lived rule as caliph (744–50). Marwan reorganized his army, taking Syria by 746. Soon afterward, the Umayyad army was defeated (750) by a combined force of Iraqi, Persian, Shiite, and Abbasid soldiers. Marwan fled, only to be killed by troops under the first caliph of the subsequent Abbasids.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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